Looked for this question - hope I didn't overlook it, but here goes. We had our last doe to kid last night -(beautiful little buff colored buck!), she is a little pygmy that we "rescued" from a petting zoo, so I'm not sure of her age. We've had her for about a year & she was grown when we got her. She seemed to have a difficult delivery (compared to my other 2 does - 1 pygmy & 1 nubian), although she had the smallest kid. She also has had the slowest recovery. Could her age have contributed to this? Is there any way to check for approximate age such as the teeth with horses? Is there a danger to letting older does breed?

-- Wendy Wetherall (tstorm@prtcnet.com), February 16, 2002

Answers

Response to does - age & breeding

Pygmies are notorious for difficult kidding and a high incidence of C- sections. But about telling the age, yes you can tell somehwat by the teeth. Look at the teeth of a young goat, under a year old. All hte teeth should be small- the same size. Now if you have a yearling, look at her teeth. The two teeth in the center should be adult teeth- larger. A two year old has four adult teeth in the center, and a three year old had six adult teeth. Four year olds have all eight teeth the same size, all adult. After four it gets a little trickier to tell, you have to rely on wear and tear, missing teeth, and it isn't as exact. Does that have been on sandy ground or had to eat grain off the ground may have much more wear on their teeth than does of the same age on different management.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 16, 2002.

I guess I have been lucky, none of my pygmies have ever had trouble with deliveries, except one that had quads and the last two were stuck. The only pygmy I have now just had her fourth set of twins, with an ease that puts my Nubians to shame (and 3 0f her 4 kiddings have been breedings to Nubian bucks..) At least now I know Murphy's Law hasn't applied to EVERY aspect of my life....:>) Julie in OK

-- Julie (okwilk213@juno.com), February 16, 2002.